Masteries

Offense:
22

Defense:
0

Utility:
8

First and foremost, this guide is for those who can believe that Ashe is actually one of the most useful champions to have in a game, and/or one of the most powerful. She permaslows, stuns, and now even has a built in Clairvoyance. She does damage, but mostly achievable by getting 70% critical chance through a combination of items and masteries.

With that out of the way, to play Ashe with this build, make it a habit to use her auto-attack instead of her volly, since her auto attack has a chance to do a lot of damage in this game. Volly takes a lot of mana, and sure it has range, but unless you're fighting against idiots, I highly advise against using it unless you're going to go in and permaslow them to death right after. Characters with no escapes or cleanse will get screwed by her unless they have longer range abilities or attacks, which can match or better her auto-attack. At that point, you may or may not want to harass with volly. The key to winning mid, always, is to have complete control of the enemy minions. For team fights, you usually want to wait until you have a stun to use on the strongest enemy champion, while Ashe permaslows and weakens the weaker enemy champion. This can ensure a kill if you and your lane buddy work in sync, and if one gets killed fast enough, the other can be kicked out of the lane if not killed as well.

It is very important that you keep her ult up; no matter what, you want 150 mana by the time your arrow has cooled down. Her arrow is almost everything Ashe; because of it's low cool down, you can learn to rely on it for a good stun or even a KS xD
Ashe's new Clairvoyance ability is also very useful, but I do not recommend getting it early unless you have complete control of your lane. If you think you might actually need it though, go for it, but I advise against it in most cases.

Starting Items: Dagger & HP Potion

Why not lifesteal? Or mana regen? or any sustainable item? Because Ashe has good auto-attack range. Utilizing that is very essential to playing her DPS. It's also good to enable-disable her frost shot when appropriate, and you can't permaslow for anything without a bit of attack speed. Ghost will serve as your running speed for the time being, and it's usually not ever needed until mid to late game. You want to rush her boots and zeal as fast as possible in most cases. However, if you're laning against somebody like hiemer, who's pushing you super well because of his turrets, make sure you're getting those last hits, and don't be afraid to use that volly. Times like these call for brute force, so AT TIMES (never all the time) you want to grab a BF sword and then rush zeal and your boots. From there you have a pretty basic ashe build, and if you so wish, complete it with life steal (since you'll need it later anyway), but prioritize your crit chance/crit damage/ (Phantom Dancer, Inf Edge).

As for the potion, its there as insurance and should be thought of as a way to stay in your lane. Pretend its not even there, until you actually need it. Let your Regen do most of the work, which means when you're low, play more defensively than you regularly do.

Yes, you read right; 3 blood thirsters. The reality is, Ashe is squishy. By the end of this build, you will have 45% lifesteal, 70% crit chance with 305% crit damage. You can pretty much 1 v 1 anyone at this point since your life steal heals you up right away (exhaust or stun can counter this completely, so keep that cleanse handy), and your boots/phantom dancer/ghost will allow you to run like hell when the time calls for it. In addition to lifesteal, 3 blood thirsters CAN get you 120 extra damage on top of the 180 total base (in combo with 3) by killing creeps. Bloodthirsters do stack, so 380 damage + 70% crit chance + 45% life steal & attack speed is perfect for Ashe in combo with crit damage runes. You can crit 1000's to those with lesser armor. If you choose to put armor pent in your rune page to assure 1000's even against tanks, thats your call, but you NEED at least 50% crit damage (in runes + masteries). If you want to play Ashe more for permaslowing and stun, getting two phantom dancers and 2 blood thirsters is the way to go, ensuring you more run speed, attack speed, and crit chance, though I personally prefer 3 bloodthirsters. You can even throw in a thornmail if you so wish; it'l help your sustainability, and it will do more damage to those that attack you, while you get life steal (but in place of one of the blood thirsters).

Ability wise, Volly is always the first ability, from there, i strongly recommend focusing volly as much as you can unless a team mate can stun or exhaust enough for you to permaslow early to early-mid game. Of course, make sure you prioritize your ulti over everything else, and make sure to last hit as much as possible. Last hitting is extremely useful as ashe, it really gets you the upper hand much quicker.

To sum this up, runes and masteries take care of the potential side, with damage and a side of mana regen and cooldown, while your items bring out that potential. If you find you're running out of mana a lot late game, just grab golem later, or have your team help you get it at the beginning of the game.

Hope this guide is useful; I know some people will "WTF? LOL ASHE DOES NO DAMAGE" or "ROFL u suk dood ashe is support only", but really...try it before you make yourself out to look like an ***. This is a guide purely to help those out that may find it useful. A proper thank you is always appreciated, otherwise, make YOURSELF useful, and either **** off, or provide some constructive criticism.